Bike accident - injured teeth

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Hi mumsnetters ... turning to my trustiest place for advice again. 2 yo DS ploughed downhill into a brick wall on his balance bike 2 days ago and hit his front teeth.

Lots of blood, the gums are pretty traumatised and one of the teeth has been pushed forward. Doctor at urgent care wasn't overly concerned. I'll try to get an emergency dentist appt tomorrow, but a couple of things I wanted advice on..

• anyone got any experience of whether a displaced milk tooth is likely to move back into position naturally? (I understand dentist won't try to do this for various reasons)

• anyone got any experience of how likely it is that the teeth will become discoloured in a couple of weeks. Trying to prepare myself for the worst! Do they ever not become discoloured after a trauma??

Thanks as always

Hi.. no experience with milk teeth, but my DD15 knocked her adult front teeth out recently. One out fully and one partially. Both were repositioned back and wired into place. They can take months to discolour, but this is when the tooth is dead ( I also thought it was pretty much instantaneous! ) . I would imagine if only displaced the tooth is still alive and will not discolour. (In the case of my DD we have been assured they can whiten the dead tooth as and when needed. To look at her, you wouldn’t even know. She will need an implant at some point, but luckily there is so much that can be done these days.

One of my kids did this to their 2 front teeth when they were 4 so a bit older. One of the teeth turned grey and they both fell out a couple of months later. The dentist did say they might turn grey or might not and might fall out and might not. We just had to wait and monitor for any sign of infection.

So many kids do this. I knocked a milk tooth out as a child, a friend broke his adult front tooth when he was 13.

On the bright side, at least it’s only his baby teeth, although I realise that’s easy for me to say now it’s a distant memory of it happening to our child. But genuinely, as long as your little one is ok, any issues can be dealt with easily. Dentists are bloody amazing!

They may discolour, but this may fade. They will probably come out earlier than anticipated. If they have subluxed ( been pushed up into the gum) they may have damaged the permanent incisors developing above. There is nothing you can or could have done to prevent any of the “may “ scenarios.
See a dentist asap. They will be able to fully assess the damage.

Was your DS wearing a cycling helmet? We see far less tooth damage since children started wearing helmets to cycle in. If he was it’s just bad luck.

Thanks so much. Yes, he was wearing a helmet, but unfortunately the wall went up only to the level of his teeth, so the helmet didn't take any of the hit. Was all a bit rubbish :/

@DrinksInTheSunshine god ... that's what I hope doesn't happen as he's still so young. I've no idea how wobbly or otherwise they are as I daren't touch them

@Snorklette thanks. Glad it worked out for you. Did the gum take a long time to heal? His is an awful mess right now...

@Angrymum22 don't seem to be subluxed. Just shoved forward a bit. That give us any better chance of keeping them a few years longer?

My daughter done this when she was around 3/4, right down the stairs into the ground. It was horrific. Her tooth went black and fell out a few years later. The dentist said the big tooth might be the same because of the trauma but we would just need to wait. Thankfully it wasn't but it was a long wait. Hope you're little one is ok 🤍

Had a similar thing with dd at that age, teeth went grey then back to white and then fell out (dentist wasn't concerned) so this then started the natural teeth falling out stage very early. She started primary with a few of her adult teeth in already and had her braces fitted when she was 10. (no major issues, but if overcrowding)

This also happened to one of DD’s front teeth at 2. It went very grey, which lightened with time so only marginally discoloured and eventually fell out a few weeks before her 6th birthday, a few months after she lost the bottom 2, so probably about the expected time.

Dd did this aged 4. One tooth went grey/black and lasted over a year before coming out naturally. We were warned the adult tooth may also be damaged when it came through, but fortunately it was not.

Ds2 fell on his face aged three onto a tiled floor. The front two teeth stayed in place but became grey and stayed like that unfortunately until they fell out several years later. All his photos are of him smiling with his mouth shut!
Second teeth came through just fine though but it was a distressing time.

DS knocked his teeth coming off his scooter at around 3yrs old. They turned grey but didn't fall out. The dentist took them out when he was 6yrs old. His adult teeth came through a couple of years later no problems at all.

Thanks all. Seems like discoloration is really likely then :/. Any offers on whether the grey is very grey, i.e. very noticeable, or not really a big deal?

I fell down some steps and broke both of my front milk teeth when I was two. One discoloured, the other one stayed white, and both stayed put until the “normal” time to fall out, I.e. 5 years old. He might be ok discolouration-wise xx

Very noticeable in our case. Got fed up of people asking or thinking he had rotten teeth :(

Oh that's interesting! So, same injury, same teeth, different outcome.

@cptartapp ... urgh. Any solutions apart from waiting?

That must have been scary OP?!
Not quite the same, but my ds never developed enough enamel on his 4 top front teeth, they are stubby and uneven because the are very crumbly. On advice of his dentist I have focused on keeping them as healthy as possible so they keep everything in position for when his permanent teeth emerge, which I was told was the important bit. He's had his first visit from the tooth fairy now so I'm nearly there, but it's been years of being diligent.

It wasn't great!

Yeh ... I think at least this has given me a shot across the bows to be very very careful with his teeth, baby and adult.

It’s another might/might not answer.
If he’s only 2 and is already showing lack of risk aversion can I suggest a helmet that is more like a motor cycle helmet , one that extend down to his neck and cheeks. Boys are generally lacking the risk aversion gene when it comes to speed. Please note I’m not being judgemental but as the owner of a DS18 I have earned my mum-of-a-boy certificate.
My DS was actually quite risk averse and never really took to bike riding. However he’s now driving, his teeth are the least of my worries nowadays. He was a late developer with his love for speed.

DD1 bashed one of her front teeth on the side of the bed when she was about 18 months. She's 4 now and you can't tell from the front, but when we were at the dentist the other day she showed me the back of that tooth which is noticeably yellowing (all the others are pristine white) and said it's probably been slowly dying since. You can't tell from the front though and she said it will fall out before there's any issues.

Oh and hers was pushed slightly, it had a little movement in it when it was first done but it anchored back down and now it's not really noticeable to anyone except me because I know her utterly straight her front teeth were before!

Have a look at xcross bike helmets. They have face saving design. It’s worth the extra.
It’s interesting how cycling is so far behind other sports with face and head injury protection.

DS tripped and damaged his top front tooth at nearly 4, his tooth went grey and he had to have it removed because he developed an abscess above the tooth, it was just a small white spot and not painful though. We were worried about his permanent tooth but it came through perfectly normal.